At times, the Master was referred to as the "Dark God," especially by those opposed to the Children of the Cathedral. By his Children, he was referred to as the "New God," "the Holy Flame," and "Father Hope." A hideous FEV-mutated creature that has somehow hybridized with not only other human mutants, but also computers, turning him into a rather grotesque monster who speaks in multiple voices. Apart from his appearance, one of his most notable features is his unique way of speaking. His voice is computer-generated and sentences are composed, apparently in real-time, from samples of several people's speech.

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Richard Moreau was a resident of Vault 8, later known as Vault City, where he worked as a doctor. In 2092, he was exiled from the city for murder, although the circumstances surrounding the murder are unknown. He changed his name to "Richard Grey" and headed south, eventually settling in the Hub, where he met Harold, a prominent trader. Following ever increasing attacks on Harold's caravans by mutated creatures, the pair teamed up on May 22, 2102, and led a team of scientists who mounted an expedition to the northwest to investigate the source of the mutated animals, which were attacking the survivors of the nuclear war. On June 23, 2102, Grey and his party stumbled upon the Mariposa Military Base, in which the U.S. government had been mass-producing and experimenting with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV).

With the exception of Grey, Harold, and Mark, the party was cut down by the mutated creatures and the base's internal defense systems. Grey and Harold made it to the central core, a room full of vats. Grey was plunged into a vat of FEV by a robotic arm. Floating in the vats for almost a month, the FEV transformed Grey into the amorphous, blob-like being that would eventually become known as the Master. This entity expanded its biological mass by absorbing other creatures and people that came near the base, and bionically merging itself with computer equipment from the base. The ones he consumed also became part of his multiple personalities. It also began capturing humans that stumbled upon its lair, and intentionally exposing them to the FEV. These initial mutated humans were incredibly flawed, and the newly named Master consumed them rather than letting them live.

As he began to feel stronger and more capable than ever before, he came up with the idea to "unify" the wasteland, to make it as perfect as he believed himself to be. In January of 2103, the Master perfected his method of infecting, or "dipping" humans, and began creating the super mutants, who followed the Master's every command. Unfortunately for him, as he began to dip others in the vats he found the resulting creatures were not like himself: most often, they mutated into brutish soldiers, losing much of their brain function. It became apparent that only those with low total radiation count would not suffer this fate.

The following is based on the Fallout Bible and is not considered canon.

In 2130, the Great Winter occurred, causing a scarcity of human subjects for dipping, making it difficult to expand his army further.

From 2131 to 2135, the Master started to abduct caravans for human subjects. Most of the caravan disappearances are blamed on desert monsters, steering away suspicion. Starting in 2137, the Master began to mass-produce super mutants with 1 in 6 being successful super mutants. Only half of these successful super mutants became soldiers of the Unity.

In 2152, as the influence of the Master's army began to spread throughout the wastes, the Master came into contact with a group of human Doomsday cultists, led by a man named Morpheus. Realizing the benefits of retaining unaltered humans in his service to act as spies throughout the region, the Master recruited Morpheus's cult into his service, thereby expanding his power.

In 2155, the Master discovered the location of an unnumbered experimental Vault-Tecvault prototype, located just south of the center of the ruins of Los Angeles, California, now called the Boneyard. Seeing great opportunity there, the Master relocated to the vault with his human cult followers and a portion of his ever-growing super mutant army, and oversaw the building of a large cathedral on the surface above the vault the following year. The cult became known as the Children of the Cathedral, and continued to be led by Morpheus, who reported directly to the Master. The cathedral was guarded by the nightkin, which were super mutant elite troops equipped with Stealth Boy technology.

While the Children appeared to be a fervent religious order - and, in fact, some of the low ranking members may not even have been privy to the more sinister reason behind the cult's existence - in reality, the Children and Morpheus were simply a front that the Master uses to advance his plan for the future of mankind: "The Unity."

In 2162, a human from Vault 13 known as the Vault Dweller destroyed the mutant army by defeating the Master and destroying the Cathedral, and then later causing an explosion in the FEV vats at Mariposa.

The Master is the creator and leader of the super mutants. He is also the mastermind behind a movement called "The Unity," the aim of which is to turn every human into a super mutant by means of the FEV, by force if necessary. He claims that those who cannot be mutated by the virus, as well as those that choose not to, will be allowed to live -- provided they submit themselves to sterilization. Those that resist the Unity outright will be executed for trying to stand in the way of the Master's "progress." In theory, the Unity is for humanity's own good, as super mutants are better adapted to live in a post-nuclear wasteland. Also, according to the Master, turning all living beings into one single race would finally eliminate the differences and the human fallacies that ultimately brought about nuclear war.

However, the Master's plan is odd as all super mutants are sterile. The Vault Dweller can help Vree, a scientist of the Brotherhood of Steel, come to this conclusion, and later use this information to convince the Master that his endeavor has no chance of success. Or if they decide to join the Unity, the ending will show the Vault Dweller being turned into a super mutant, then show the Vault 13 residents being killed by the super mutants. This ending is non-canon however, as it would undo and prevent the events of Fallout 2.

One of the main objectives in Fallout is to destroy the Master. The Vault Dweller has three options to choose from. They can either kill the Master through combat, convince him to abandon his plan (in which case the Master commits suicide), or bypass the Master entirely by manually setting off a nuclear device, located on the fourth floor of the vault in which the Master lives. If the dweller encounters the Master, he also has the option of joining forces with the Master instead, giving a non-canonical ending.

Unless the Vault Dweller joins the Master, the end result remains the same. The Master's death would trigger the nuclear device anyway, resulting in the destruction of the Cathedral.

Returning to the Cathedral after the Nuclear Device is detonated, the Vault Dweller simply sees a gaping black crater.

Several mutants led the armies after the fall of the Master. Remnants of the Master's army, such as those led by Tabitha, were found to relocate to inhospitable regions such as Black Mountain. However, despite their lacking numbers and remote locale, they were still found to pose a threat to the populace of the Mojave Wasteland due to frequent and brutal attacks carried out against travelers.

In his attempt to become master of all humanity, the Master tried to create guardians through gene splicing, but was stopped by the Vault Dweller before he could complete his plans. However, some of his creations have outlived him and continue to roam the wasteland. These abominations include centaurs and floaters, which are often found together as though they feel some sort of kinship for one another.[1]

The Master has extremely powerful psionic abilities, able to project extremely vivid hallucinations that easily break the mind of any enemy without some form of mental protection. Besides his psionic abilities, the Master also has a genius-level intellect and incredible natural charisma, having rallied an army of sycophantically devoted human and super-mutant followers around him. He has mastered genetic engineering through his experiments with the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

The Master is also hard to kill in combat without specializing in such, due to the Master's bio-electrical integration with the Cathedral Vault's Overseer Chair, giving him access to its twin gatling lasers, providing the Master with considerable firepower, though the real danger in the fight comes from the repeatedly spawning super mutants.

If, on the other hand, with the proper equipment, such as a turbo plasma rifle, hardened power armor or Tesla armor, a few stims and high stats in Energy Weapons, Endurance, etc., then the Master is fairly easy to defeat. Aiming for the eyes while going back to cover improves the chances of success.

Because the Master is integrated into the Vault Overseer's chair, he counts as a robotic enemy and is highly vulnerable to pulse grenades (which are a viable way for non-combat oriented characters to still defeat the Master in a straight fight).

The psychic nullifier (which is possibly based on alien technology) can dampen the Master's psychic attacks.

In Project V13's trailer, one can read a crude carving on the table: "The Master Lives!"

If the Vault Dweller leaves the base after attacking the Master, the super mutants will stop spawning, making the fight a lot easier.

If a save is done during the fight, it can be reloaded and the super mutants that have spawned disappear.

One of the Master's most prominent weaknesses is his vulnerability to pulse grenades. His hit points will drop dramatically with each successful throw.

But an even greater vulnerability is the limited range of his Gatling lasers, which means that there is a window further away in the long hallway from where one can shoot him with sniper rifle without him being able to retaliate. It is also very easy to defeat any approaching nightkin one by one.

He has 4 voices - 1 robotic, 2 male and 1 female (possibly because of the effect of the FEV and merging himself with computers).

Harold speaks of him fondly, he seems to have enjoyed him as a friend and he seems sad about what had happened to him in Mariposa.

The Master is the strongest enemy in Fallout. He has 500 HP, can attack twice per round, and is protected by an almost constantly respawning supply of super mutant bodyguards.

"The Unity will bring about the master race. Master! Master! One able to survive, or even thrive, in the wasteland. As long as there are differences, we will tear ourselves apart fighting each other. We need one race. Race! Race! One goal. Goal! Goal! One people... to move forward to our destiny. Destiny."

"I... don't think that I can continue. Continue? To have done the things I have done in the name of progress and healing. It was madness. I can see that now. Madness. Madness? There is no hope. Leave now, leave while you still have hope..."

"We won't change. Not unless we are of one people. One. One. One. One race. One. One. One. The Unity will allow us to move beyond these petty concerns and deal with the major problems at hand. You do want to be a part of that, don't you? Part. Don't."

"All that resist, yes. All those that are required for the Unity as well. The remainder will be allowed to live out their days, but under Unity control and protection. But none shall breed, for they will be the last of their race."

The Master was going to be the main antagonist in the canceled Fallout movie. He would have taken the place of the Lieutenant, torturing the Vault Dweller, leading the attack on Vault 13, and killing the Overseer personally. In the end he was killed by the Vault Dweller, as he attempts to infect Max with the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

The following is based on unverified behind the scenes information and has not been confirmed by canon sources.

In Fallout 2, the Master's true name is revealed to be Richard Moreau. This may be a nod to the 1896 science fiction novel The Island of Doctor Moreau about a scientist who conducts bizarre and cruel experiments on animals he has imported in an attempt to create sentient beings out of them.